The casket containing the remains of Bishop Gregorij Rozman is carried out of the Slovenian Catholic Mission in Lemont after a memorial service Sunday. (Scott Strazzante, Chicago Tribune)

It's been 53 years, but the members of the Slovenian Catholic community in the Chicago area and around the world are only now finding closure in the death of their former Bishop Gregorij Rozman.

Accused of collaborating with the Nazis by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia during World War II, Rozman was forced into exile. He was cleared of the charges only after his death in late November 1959.

A memorial service Sunday in Lemont, where Rozman was buried, celebrated his life and the journey that will deliver his remains to their final resting place in the capital of his native Slovenia.

"He's going home finally," Kathy Kaye, 50, of Milwaukee, said during the service at the Slovenian Catholic Mission in Lemont.

"He was a man without a country," she said, with tears in her eyes.

Kaye and her sister Helen Frohna, 56, also of Milwaukee, attended dressed in traditional, gold-sequined Slovenian clothing. They grew emotional as former World War II refugees and concentration camp survivors gave testimony in Slovenian about how Rozman helped them or touched their lives in some way.

"We're just so happy," Frohna said.

The sisters' mother had been forced to flee Slovenia, part of what was known at that time as Yugoslavia, for the United States during World War II. The sisters said Rozman was their mother's bishop and his guidance helped her remain faithful and pass on that faith to her children and grandchildren.

The repatriation of Rozman's remains speaks volumes to how far Slovenia has come after declaring its independence in 1991, said Stan Kastelick, 52, of Chicago.

"The bishop took a stand against communism, and he paid the price," Kastelick said. "Today is meaningful for all the people who fought for their country and their faith. This guy was a hero, not a traitor."

Rozman was tried by the Yugoslav military court in absentia in 1946 and found guilty of collaborating with the Nazis. The evidence against him included a picture he had taken with a prominent Nazi leader at the time and the fact that he'd been born in Austria, Slovenian Catholic Mission Deacon John Vidmar said. In 1999, the Slovenia's Supreme Court remanded a review of Rozman's case to the lower courts, which decided in 2009 against the review, recognizing that the accusations had been "politically motivated," Vidmar said, making the charges moot.

This decision cleared the way for a death certificate to be issued for Rozman and for his return home, Vidmar said.

His remains will be buried in a crypt at St. Nicholas Cathedral in the capital, Ljubljana.

Anton Gombac, 79, of Oak Lawn, who met Rozman while Gombac was a refugee in Paris, reflected on Rozman's character after the service.

"He was such a quiet, gentle man," Gombac said.

Rozman had chosen to be buried in Lemont, a place where Slovenian-American immigrants sometimes pilgrimage, because he knew his body couldn't return home.

People from across the country, including New York, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, gathered in the packed chapel along with Archdiocese of Ljubljana Auxiliary Bishop Anton Jamnik and former Cleveland Auxiliary Bishop Edward Pevec. A group men — including two who had been confirmed by Rozman — and a woman carried a casket containing Rozman's remains out of the chapel at the end of the service and placed it in a hearse. Jamnik cast holy water on the casket.

A Mass for Rozman will be celebrated Saturday in Ljubljana.

Pevec knew Rozman for nine years before his death.

"Probably there are many doubters who don't see Rozman as we do," Pevec said. "They never walked in his shoes or suffered the agony ... of bitter judgment and hatred. They never saw what we saw. They never heard what we heard.

"We pray for them, and we ask them to see this bishop for who he truly was, not the one his enemies made him out to be."